Turning 8: When Less is More

The birthday plans were getting nailed down and invitations were almost sent. Lijee wanted an Xbox party but I wouldn't agree to it because only 4 people can play at once and I said the others would be bored standing around watching those 4. Consequently we were debating over a couple other ideas, like laser tag and ropes course at Main Event, or Capture The Flag and Nerf gun wars at home.

Then the broken foot. There would be no running or climbing at this birthday party. No laser tag, no ropes, no capture the flag, no Nerf gun war. Then I agreed to an Xbox party with less friends with 4 players total so no one would be left standing and watching. We agreed on 2 boys+Eli+Zeke on his actual birthday and I got suckered into 1 boy+Eli+Zeke+Daisy on Saturday.

This is how the boys spent the entire afternoon. 

 They took a couple short breaks for pizza and birthday cake. Then they were back at it.

Lester is a buddy from K-1st grade.

 The actual birthday fell on MLK day this year, which meant no school. Yay! The morning started with breakfast from McDonald's (his choice), a gift from the bigs, 

and a gift from Mommy & Daddy.

 Finally it was time for the friends to come! 

 At it again.

 Jax is a friend from second grade.

 Jack has been a friend since infancy.

 These boys were not quite as die hard as the day before. They actually took a break and played outside for a bit. However, no running or climbing for Eli.

 Cake time!

 My littlest boy is eight years old

and 51 inches tall.

 We always take a picture here to show our growth. Somehow there keeps getting more and more things on the wall each year.

 "8"

 Zeke was asked to describe his siblings recently. He used 'rambunctious' for Lijee. Pretty fitting, I'd say. He's kind of a bull-in-a-china-closet type of boy and can break something just by looking at it. He loves building things like Legos and making up imaginary games with very specific character roles. He's got a fantastic memory, and much like his daddy he is a math wiz. He also has a dry sense of humor that is quite funny. My favorite part is that he has the ability to melt my heart when he asks for some 'snugga-wugga.'

Crutches: Not All They're Cracked Up To Be

"This is Nurse Tracy. There's no emergency, but Eli's in my office with a hurt foot."

It was nearly the end of the day. When I got there, the foot was super-sensitive. When we tried to walk he said it hurt too badly, so Nurse Tracy got us the wheelchair. I felt that was a little over the top, but that's how he got inside from recess, where he hurt his foot after he jumped off some equipment.

By the time we got him home and inside, he had tears in his eyes and the foot was swelling just a bit. We decided to go ahead to get an x-ray, just in case. 

He still couldn't walk, so Daddy found the old buggy. 

 X-ray time.

 They saw our pathetic little buggy and gave us a chair. Here we're waiting in the waiting area.

 His foot was a tiny bit swollen, but not bad. No bruising, though.

 Here we're waiting in a waiting room.

Here we're practicing his smile.

 Finally the doctor came in. Official diagnosis: nondisplaced fractures of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th metatarsals.

Here is the boot.

 Here are the crutches.

 He got another chair ride to the car.

 Here is is coming home on crutches.

 Good thing we have reclining couches since his foot needs to be elevated for the first 48 hours.

 He's having a hard time with the crutches and boot. It hurts when he moves. Vivia gave us the great idea to use the office chair. Lijee likes to call it his wheelie. 

We had the next 2 days off school, which worked out great. He got to sit and play video games with his foot propped up while Daisy and I waited on him. Even though we had a doctor read the x-ray we have to go back next week to an orthopedic doctor to $ee what the treatment plan i$.

Starting the Year on the Right Foot With The 6th Annual NYE Envelopes

For the 6th year in a row, hourly family bonding is back!

12:00 noon

read DanFam5 Blessings from 2018 and ride bikes

The girls were there for the excitement, too.

1:00 photo scavenger hunt

Daisy found an old avocado seed from the compost for an oval.

Zeke was getting a stick the size of his foot.

 Eli was also getting the stick, among lots of other objects.

2:00 obstacle course

Warm up first.

There was climbing up and down the club house,

target shooting,

and hoops,

all of which were timed.

There was a bit of stick waving, as well.

 3:00 make movie

This one was a bust. They got a couple army guy pics, but no movie was created.

4:00 scavenger hunt with clues

 5:00

snack from QT and switch Zekers with Millie

They all three wanted a blizzard, but the machine was broken. Zeke settled on a doughnut while the 2 littles got a slushee.

6:00

pop balloons

At this point I went to bring a meal to a friend. My quick errand wasn't so quick, so I missed some fun. 

7:00

play a game

They played Apples to Apples, but I wasn't there to get a picture. However, Ellen sent a picture of Zekers in a riveting game of ping pong.

8:00

science experiment and learn 'please' and 'thank you' in Korean

The girls tried to make some slime, but it did not turn out. So they filled in with some selfies and musical.ly videos.

Here's how Lijee felt about that:

 9:00

blindfold races

10:00

karaoke 

They turned on some Greatest Showman tunes. Because is there a better way to get ready for a new year than to belt out some 'This Is Me?'

Daisy grabbed her new Christmas present, a Greatest Showman piano book to sing along.

Meanwhile, these boys were eagerly awaiting the ball drop.

 Lijee was watching the girls sing and dance. *Note the bowl sitting next to him. More on that later.

 Millie brought some poppers so the girls were still partying it up.

 11:00

create something

The girls were getting a little punchy.

Daisy wrote a sweet poem for her Daddy (who was waaaay asleep by this point)

 This little guy almost made it to midnight. To be fair, he was not feeling well. 

Remember the bucket sitting beside him earlier? At about 1:30 am or so he vomited for the first time. He got the first tiny bit in the throw up bucket, but fortunately he made it to the toilet for the rest. Unfortunately the toilet lid was not up so it splattered everywhere. Remember that red slushee from earlier? It looked like a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the bathroom. There was not a surface from about 2 feet and down that was not splattered. 

#parenting 

No sooner had I got it cleaned (literally, I had not even made it back to bed yet because it had been 30-45 minutes of solid scrubbing), and he vomited right in the middle of the bed. So much for the throw up bucket. A little shuffling with the beds and starting laundry and we were settled again. Poor little guy continued to vomit another 10 or so times throughout the night and into the next day.

#poorlittlemommy

12:00 midnight

peau peau (Korean for kiss)

We counted down and watched the ball drop.

 Millie said her Mom told her to 'start the year off on the right foot,' so we did.

 On the other side of town, so did Sam, Zeke, Jonah and Grant.

Happy New Year! 2019 is going to be a year of great adventure for DanFam5! Can't wait to see how the Lord will use us in Korea!